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Front page of program for the 1976 Outstanding American Handgunner of the Year program with contributor Bill Sander’s name tag and Bill Jordan’s.
Imagine if you will, it’s 1976. It’s the Bicentennial of our country. Disco was king, Jimmy Carter was elected president, bell-bottoms were the rage, and Pet Rocks were the craze, showing us how gullible we were.
Despite these crazy generational flops and follies, there was one meaningful and positive event happening: the Fourth Annual Outstanding American Handgunner Awards. The event was held at the McCormick Inn in Chicago, Illinois. It was the Golden Era of the Handgun Industry.
The event was held at the McCormick Inn in Chicago, Illinois. It was the Golden Era of the Handgun Industry.
Just three short years prior, Lee Jurras, Owner of Super-Vel ammunition, started the Outstanding American Handgunner Awards Foundation.
The foundation was designed to recognize worthy participants who made major contributions in the World of Handgunning. Jurras served as the first chairman and was followed in succession over the years by other industry friends.
Jurras personally commissioned and paid for the first 10 bronze statues awarded to the winners each year, along with all other expenses for the banquet. Over the years, the list of winners reads like a virtual Who’s Who of Handgunning. The first winner, of course, in 1973, was Elmer Keith.
Page 2 with the Master of Ceremonies and the guest speaker.
Program Trail
I was contacted by Special Projects Editor Roy Huntington. He informed me of an interesting proposition. It seems gun enthusiast Bill Sander was referred to Roy by gun writer Rob Garret.
Bill had the good fortune of attending the Outstanding American Handgunner Award banquet back in 1976 and still had the program. Only this program was special, as it was autographed by all the people whose photographs appeared in said program. On the front cover of said program is Bill’s name tag, along with Bill Jordan’s, as he was a nominee for the Award.
Sander told me he had the chance to speak with Jordan after the banquet and stated he was very cordial. Sander asked Jordan what he was going to do with his name tag, and Jordan replied, “Probably throw it out.” Sander asked if he could have the name tag, and Jordan replied, “Sure.” Sander quickly added it to the front of his program. Sander describes himself as a gun aficionado, collector and member of the Ohio Gun Collectors for over 50 years. He was an FFL holder and motorcycle dealer.
Skeeter Skelton had his own page.
Past Recipients
In 1976, there were already three recipients of the prestigious award. Elmer Keith won the first award in 1973. Col. Charles Askins was the second, and Bill Ruger was the third recipient.
Up for nomination for the 1976 banquet was Gun Digest Editor in Chief John Amber, technical expert and gun writer George Nonte, handgun stock maker Steve Herrett, retired Border Patrol Asst. Chief Bill Jordan, and lastly, beloved gun writer Skeeter Skelton.
Jordan was awarded the prestigious trophy in 1976. Herrett and Skelton would eventually earn the trophy in later years.
Explanation of the selection committee.
Board of Directors.
Ghosts of Yesteryear
Reading through this old program stirs many memories and thoughts, reminding us of the way things used to be. They were certainly the good old days. Imagine how special it would be to witness such men seated under the same roof. I’m sure the conversation was loud and boisterous, both the result of being hard of hearing and the giant personalities in the room.
Our own John Taffin had the pleasure to serve as chairman of this fine organization from 1992 to 1999, stating, “When, due to many things (such as lack of industry support), we decided to close the awards. Lee’s dream was shut down, and he was very disappointed.”
Dot Taffin relayed that John never received the award as he was the chairman and didn’t want any controversy over his receiving it. This sounds just like John, a man of immense integrity. But he was certainly worthy of such recognition in my book.
Past Recipients
1973- Elmer Keith
1974- Col. Charles Askins
1975- Wiliam B. Ruger
1976- Bill Jordan
1977- Harlon Carter
1978- Skeeter Skelton
1979- Lee Jurras
1980- Warren Center
1981- Steve Herrett
1982- Hal Swiggett
1983- J.D. Jones
1984- Larry Kelly
1985- Frank Pachmayr
1986- John Bianchi
1987- Elgin Gates
1988- Dick Casull
1989- Dean Grenell
1990- Jim Clarke
1991- Bob Milek
1992- Bill Blankenship
1993-Harry Reeves
1994- Roy Jinks
1995- Col. Jeff Cooper
1996- Col. Rex Applegate
1997- Col. Walter Walsh
1998- Massad Ayoob
1999- Gil Hebard
Skeeter Skelton’s Trophy at the Handgunner Hall of Fame at Mag-Na-Port, Intl.
Larry Kelly’s Award in his office at Mag-Na-Port, Intl.
Bill Jordan’s trophy in Raton, NM, once owned
by Mike “Madbo” Hutyra.
End of an Era
The Outstanding American Handgunner Award was discontinued in 1999. As the Industry grew, it became more complicated choosing a single individual without offending so many other worthy recipients. But looking back, we can see the kind of men the gun Industry once held during the Golden Age of Handgunnery. For this, we can be proud.
I’ve been fortunate to see the trophies of Skeeter Skelton, Bill Jordan and Larry Kelly. The nice thing about history is it never changes, and shouldn’t. That’s why it’s important to keep passing down these events, stories, pictures and ceremonies.
The Handgunner Hall of Fame is in the lobby of Mag-Na-Port, Intl. in Mt. Clemens, MI. Stop by if you’re ever in the area to visit, see Larry Kelly’s game room, and visit with Ken Kelly and his sisters, Donna and Doreen. They keep things running in this family-run business.
Special thanks to Bill Sander for sending me his 1976 Program. It will find its new home at the Handgunner Hall of Fame.
Zimmerit was not used on all German armored vehicles.
This early-production Tiger II with a Porsche turret lacks the stuff.
All real men are smitten with tanks. The latest M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 main battle tank weighs 149,000 lbs. and can beat 42 miles per hour on a decent road. Its Honeywell gas turbine engine puts out a cool 1,500 horsepower, while the tank’s 120mm M256 smoothbore cannon will reach out and kill stuff at 2½ miles. The Abrams is the very embodiment of serious military power.
Like many of today’s modern wonder weapons, it was the Nazis who really got the ball rolling. For all their well-documented moral depravity, the Germans during World War II were some undeniably snappy dressers. They also pioneered many of the weapon systems so critical to modern combined arms warfare.
Assault rifles, cruise missiles, and the attack submarine all had their genesis in Nazi weapons research labs. Additionally, it was Heinz Guderian’s Blitzkrieg that introduced the world to the modern main battle tank. Originally designed simply to get troops out of the trenches during World War I, by the late 1930s the Germans had developed the tank into something else entirely.
The Germans transformed the lumbering behemoths of the First World War into the dynamic armored arm of decision. While the Germans fielded dozens of different armored vehicle designs during the course of WWII, it was the vaunted Panther and Tiger getting all of the press.
Realistically, however, it was the humble assault guns, the StuGs and the Jagdpanzers that did most of the serious killing. These turretless, low-slung armored vehicles were relatively cheap. They also lent themselves to the defensive actions that defined the German war effort for the last two years of the conflict.
The common denominator of all those German armored vehicles was a curiously rough external finish. At a glance the stuff looks like drywall mud crudely contoured with a serrated trowel. The Germans applied this material to the steel armor of their tanks before their final coat of paint. They called this weird goop zimmerit.
The Hafthohlladung was a magnetic shaped-charge weapon the Germans developed for use against Allied tanks. Photo: baku13, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia
The Königstiger Tiger II was the biggest, baddest German
production tank of the war. This example was captured in
Normandy and is covered in zimmerit anti-mine paste.
The Zimmerit Story
Zimmerit was a paste-like substance the Germans used to coat their armored fighting vehicles starting about mid-war and extending to the very end. Once set, zimmerit formed a hard, concrete-like covering atop the vehicle’s steel armor. The theory was the rough raised surface would preclude the attachment of magnetic antitank mines.
There were some concerns later in the war zimmerit might actually be flammable and contribute to the destruction of these vehicles in combat, but this turned out to be unfounded. For its intended purpose, zimmerit worked just fine.
The magnetostatic strength of a magnet decreases with the cube of distance. That’s the reason a magnet seems to snap in place once you get it close to a steel surface.
Magnets can be very powerful, but their effect is greatly diminised by range. By applying this rough stippled surface to their tanks, German engineers ensured magnetic mines could not get a firm grip with which to adhere.
Zimmerit began as a thick putty. It was applied at the factory and then flash hardened using blow torches. It was quite durable. Despite the innately rough environment in which these vehicles operated, the zimmerit remained relatively intact.
The vast majority of zimmerit exhibits the characteristic ridged pattern. Some StuG III assault guns had this material applied in a waffle configuration but it was unusual.
The ridged concrete-looking stuff on the side of this German Tiger Tank is zimmerit.
The Weapon
The reason the Germans went to all the trouble of slathering their armored vehicles in this sticky hard goo was the Hafthohlladung. Developed in 1942, the Hafthohlladung was also known colloquially in the German ranks as the Panzerknacker or “Tank Breaker.” This term was a derivation of the same word used to describe a safe cracker. The word literally translates to “Adhesive Hollow Charge.”
The Hafthohlladung consisted of a cone-shaped explosive charge mounted atop strong horseshoe magnets. The standard version weighed about 7 lbs. and was fired via a pull cord with a time delay. In practice, some very brave antitank troops would run up to an enemy tank, slap this thing in place, snatch the little ball out of the top to light the internal fuse, and scamper away.
The Hafthohlladung would punch through 5½” of rolled homogenous armor and was shockingly effective.
The zimmerit on some StuG III assault gun exhibited this curious waffle pattern.
The Problem
The truly curious bit, however, was the Germans were the only combatants during the war to field magnetic antitank mines. The Hafthohlladung was simply a cracking weapon, but nobody else used it. The Nazis went to all the trouble to create a countermeasure to a weapon only they utilized.
With the crystalline clarity of hindsight, every square inch of the zimmerit was utterly worthless — it was never used for its intended purpose, not one single time. War can be a funny thing indeed.